Soaps - Sarah Joy Brown/Madison James [DOOL] #1: 'There is incredible depth in the performances of Sarah Brown.' - Roger Newcomb - Page 3

Nothing Else Matters · 11-30-2011, 12:42 AM

I was nervous about her coming back to GH and I wish she hadn't. I can't believe they had her character apart of Michael's shooting.

I guess Sarah thought of it as a challenge. They didn't give her much when she started as Carly and there was a chance she was going to lose her job back then. But she and the writers made the character work.

I miss Sarah's Carly like no tomorrow.

Quote:

I remember very well the first time I saw Sarah on-air. We had slowly let drop to the audience that Bobbie had a daughter she'd given up at birth, and at the very tag end of an episode, we saw the girl, up to no good. Suddenly there was Sarah looking ungainly, uncomfortable, a little butch, badly dressed, smiling too much and too insincerely- you could hardly imagine anyone less actressy. I wasn't optimistic. But one thing she had right away: Immediately, she seemed exactly the sort of bad seed that might have sprung from our beloved-but-rough-around-the-edges Bobbie.

A Rocky Start

It's [casting director] Mark Teschner's genius that he can see things in actors that we may not see till much later. I thought her first couple of months on the air were awful. It was partly the function of the character's having a hidden agenda: Every moment she had with anyone was fake. It's one thing to ask a seasoned actor playing a detailed, fleshed-out, established character to do that. It's another to ask a girl of 19 or 20 or whatever Sarah was, who's playing a character that's a complete question mark. I mean, the audience didn't know what Carly "Roberts" was like for real, so how to show she was not what she seemed? All poor Sarah could do most of the time was make faces behind other characters' backs. It's pretty obvious now that bringing on a character and asking her to reveal nothing for weeks on end was not a stroke of genius on our parts.

Who's That Girl?

Worse yet, we the writers didn't really know what Carly was supposed to be. That may sound like a horrifying confession, but in daytime, a successful character is always a collaboration between the writers and the actor. We begin by making a few decisions about who we think the character is, the actor finds certain other decisions have to be made and makes them, sparks fly between the actor and another actor, we see what's happening on-screen and start playing around with it in the writing- that's how a character takes shape.

A Political Minefield

Carly was different. We were afraid of her. I started [on the show] right around the time Sarah did, but it's my understanding that there was quite a hullabaloo about Carly before she was ever cast. I was told a writer (the one I think I replaced) had even quit over it. The issue was this: Carly was coming to Port Charles for the purpose of haunting Bobbie and making her life miserable, out of supposed anger at having been "abandoned" by her. But of course, she wasn't abandoned, she was given up for adoption, and the network and producers were rightly concerned that we might be "sending the message" (that phrase that soap writers dread) either that adopted children were hateful and full of rage, or that their adoptive parents were neglectful or otherwise inadequate enough to instill this smoldering resentment of being adopted in their kids... I need not go on. The pitfalls are obvious, and I imagine Bob [Guza, the headwriter] promised Wendy [Riche, the executive producer] and ABC that we had no intention of falling into them.

Decisions, Decisions

Well, that was easier said than done. For one thing, the antidote to a character's being seen as a "message" is to make her so vivid and specific that she isn't anything but herself- she just is. But that takes time. Carly was brand-new- For another, no two people on the writing team had the same idea of how to keep Bob's promise and circumvent the difficulties. Worse yet, Bob was leaving the show and the new headwriter seemed to have a very different idea of who Carly was or should be. The upshot was that we were all afraid to make any big decisions about Carly when we wrote her. Sarah, naturally, wasn't about to make them either. She was waiting for the writing to make it clear who Carly was supposed to be, and she didn't have the experience or the confidence to say, as a veteran might have, "Okay, they don't know who she is so I'll make her up."

The Turning Point

I remember very sharply the first time I dared to make a big decision about Carly. She was in Bobbie's room alone and was supposed to try on a piece of Bobbie's jewelry. I decided Carly didn't care about the necklace or want to steal it. She didn't covet Bobbie's things. She might've thought she wanted to hurt Bobbie, but in coming to know her, she came to want to be Bobbie- to have her life. This was not only more human and sympathetic but was consistent with her soon-to-be-clear objective to seduce Tony. Well, that's all the logic Sarah needed to go on. It was like letting a genie out of a bottle. She was a completely different actor in that episode than anyone we'd ever seen before, and we all saw it and got excited about it.

Getting Under Carly's Skin

Thank God for [associate headwriter] Elizabeth Korte and Steve Burton (Jason). I think it was Elizabeth's idea that Carly should go slumming, run into Jason and decide he'd make the perfect anonymous sex-partner. Not only did Sarah and Steve turn out to be a great pairing, not only did it add depth and danger to the Robin/Jason romance, but it allowed us finally to explore who Carly really was when she was alone. What she wanted, what she hated, what she didn't expect that turned her from her path. I wrote a lot of those scenes, and watching Sarah play Carly then was like watching Popeye eat spinach- she just grew and grew, revealing not just a good actor but a magnificent one, with phenomenal intelligence and depth and inexhaustible emotional resources. One of the enduring thrills after 20 years in this medium is being able to watch somebody like Sarah discover herself and flex her muscles. It was and is glorious to behold.

Icing On The Cake

I often say that Bobbie and Carly are my favorite couple on the show. I love writing them. Jackie [Zeman] and Sarah are so finely tuned to their characters and each other - Sarah so gets Carly's dodges and passive-aggressive tricks, and Jackie so understands parent/child guilt trips and love/hate relationships, that my big problem writing their mother-daughter scenes is knowing when to stop.

Ex- GH Associate HeadWriter Patrick Mulcahey talking about Sarah's Carly.

- Nina - · 11-30-2011, 03:21 PM

Sarah's Carly was the best Carly ever, tbh. And I liked Claudia > Sonny/Michael and I still stand by that, that shooting was all Sonny's fault.

I didn't want her returning seeing as Guza sucked at his job and I knew he was only going to right crap for her. Glad she left when she did and happy for everything else she is doing.

Nothing Else Matters · 11-30-2011, 11:40 PM

I wasn't excited about her return because I knew Guza was going to botch it. He changed Sarah's Carly so much right at the end of her run. IA, her Carly was the best ever. Nothing will ever change my mind on that.

I didn't care much for Michael's shooting. I didn't like DC's Michael at all so it didn't matter to me. GH really turned me off during that time. I didn't come back until JJ returned and SJB was leaving.

I'm glad she's at DOOL.

Jaime Bee · 11-30-2011, 11:56 PM

I love those quotes.

Nothing Else Matters · 12-01-2011, 01:38 PM

Those were some great quotes.

Jaime Bee · 12-10-2011, 12:48 AM

They are. I liked seeing Madison yell at Sami.

She isn't a fave character of mine.

Nothing Else Matters · 12-10-2011, 11:26 AM

I've read that a couple of times about Madison yelling at Sami.

Jaime Bee · 12-12-2011, 12:46 PM

I've just never liked her.

Nothing Else Matters · 12-12-2011, 05:52 PM

Here is a pic of Sarah and Deidre Hall at the opening of Wicked in LA.

FYEAHDEIDREHALL

i never learn · 12-14-2011, 05:36 AM

i've been watching sarah/carly clips all night. damn, she lit up this show like none other! i honestly think what's so amazing about her character is that she never stops being a manipulative, conniving wench tbqh. lol. i mean, i got to the clips of robin telling aj the truth about michael, and yea, as much as i like robin, there was always this air of phoniness around her character. liz too. and brenda. amber tamblyn's emily and georgie are missed though. sigh. forgive me, just reminiscing.

Nothing Else Matters · 12-14-2011, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texas forever (View Post)

i've been watching sarah/carly clips all night. damn, she lit up this show like none other! i honestly think what's so amazing about her character is that she never stops being a manipulative, conniving wench tbqh. lol. i mean, i got to the clips of robin telling aj the truth about michael, and yea, as much as i like robin, there was always this air of phoniness around her character. liz too. and brenda. amber tamblyn's emily and georgie are missed though. sigh. forgive me, just reminiscing.

I love Robin too and I never cared when she told AJ the truth. I knew it was coming especially when she went over to the brownstone to get that final push from Carly to tell AJ. Then when she was telling AJ she said something about how Jason wouldn't lie for her or Sonny but lied for Carly. Jason had no choice but to help Carly. Oh, Robin gurl....

Sarah's Carly was a mess. She didn't stop lying or scheming. I loved that so much back then because every soap needs a bad girl. What I always loved is that her "plaaaaans" made so much sense in her mind. They would be utterly crazy but somehow Carly would convince herself they would work. Then without fail Carly would self-destruct and the plan would go awry.

Jaime Bee · 12-18-2011, 12:00 AM

I was never a Robin fan until she got with Patrick.

I thought Robin/Stone were sweet when I saw them on my SnB edits.

I'm trying but I'm not feeling Brady/Madison.

partnersincrimes · 12-18-2011, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaime Bee (View Post)

I was never a Robin fan until she got with Patrick.

I thought Robin/Stone were sweet when I saw them on my SnB edits.

I'm trying but I'm not feeling Brady/Madison.

the problem with Brady/Madison they trying too hard and too fast and without testing madison with other people which been the problem the with writing for last couple years for new couples

Nothing Else Matters · 12-18-2011, 10:55 AM

I think Eric and Sarah have chemistry but there are already enough couples on canvas. I want to see Madison around other characters and having a storyline that doesn't involve a romance. They need to flesh out her character more.

Jaime Bee · 12-19-2011, 04:58 AM

Both of you are right.

I feel like we need to get to know her a lot better before we have a romance.

There hasn't been enough buildup. That's usually the best part to me.

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Fan Forum > General Discussion > Soaps > Sarah Joy Brown/Madison James [DOOL] #1: 'There is incredible depth in the performances of Sarah Brown.' - Roger Newcomb